A BATTLE over waste utility company Pikitup is brewing between the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) and new Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba, just a week into his term of office.Over the weekend Mashaba said he would break up the waste management company into seven entities to be run by private businesses, a plan he touted during his election campaign.Mashaba told Sunday Times that none of Pikitup’s 4,500 employees would lose their jobs and he would ensure that the seven entities hired more people to keep the city clean.Mashaba’s plan puts his newly installed administration on a collision course with Samwu, which said it would do whatever it took to ensure that Pikitup was not split up and handed to the private sector.Samwu spokesman Papikie Mohale said on Monday that privatising waste removal would also cause an increase in the cost of the service and some residents would not be able to afford it."To begin with that is privatisation of a municipal entity, and we are o...
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